The Health-Care Ruling That Wasn’t

CNN’s false report that Obama’s health-care plan had been struck down by the Supreme Court may go down in the annals of journalism as one of the more embarrassing mistakes since “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” But it provided a wonderful thought experiment, giving viewers a glimpse of just how bad the political fallout for Obama would have been had the Court actually struck down the law. Within seconds, Wolf Blitzer, who was anchoring the coverage, and correspondent John King had already jumped from the ostensible news to their political obit for Obama, breathlessly describing the ruling as an “historic” defeat:

Blitzer:

What a setback, John, this would be for the President, for the Democrats, those who supported this health-care law if they rule that the individual mandate is in fact unconstitutional.

John King:

The Court striking down that mandate is a dramatic blow to the policy and to the President, politically.

The Justices have just gutted, Wolf, the centerpiece provision of the Obama health-care law.

The Justices throwing that out is a direct blow to the President of the United States, a direct blow to the Democratic Party, and this is a victory, if you will, for the conservatives.

Twitter was then activated.

Samuel Rose @samrose92:

Ouch. #Obamacare being struck down the latest blow to Obama’s campaign.

Wreck Em @DoubleTRaider:

Supreme Court has struck down individual mandate to buy health insurance, which is central piece of Obamacare. Wow. Wasted 3 1/2 years.

American_Honor @PBeliefs:

FINALLY!!! #SCOTUS says individual mandate of #ObamaCare HAS BEEN STRUCK DOWN!!!! #GodBlessAmerica. NOW LETS GET THAT #Socialist THUG OUT!!

Some pundits had suggested that a defeat would have energized Obama’s base, and proven an unexpected boon to his reëlection bid. The unlikeliness of that line of argument was exposed as CNN basically hung a sign on Obama’s neck reading “loser.” In Washington, a win is a win, and the public likes a winner. Like Tom Sawyer, Obama got to watch a glimpse of his own funeral, and, unlike the one described by Mark Twain, it wasn’t pretty.

UPDATE: CNN has now issued a formal correction, apologizing for jumping to the wrong conclusion in its coverage:

In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts initially said that the individual mandate was not a valid exercise of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause. CNN reported that fact, but then wrongly reported that therefore the court struck down the mandate as unconstitutional. However, that was not the whole of the Court’s ruling. CNN regrets that it didn’t wait to report out the full and complete opinion regarding the mandate. We made a correction within a few minutes and apologize for the error.